


Bark & Bite

by AParticularlyLargeBear



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Sex, Suggestive Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:35:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22963258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AParticularlyLargeBear/pseuds/AParticularlyLargeBear
Summary: The Undersiders' latest operation could have gone better, putting it mildly. Running for the hills, hurt and isolated is no place to be in Brockton Bay, but that's the situation Lisa and Rachel find themselves in.However, as the dust settles, perhaps there's a consolation in store.
Relationships: Rachel Lindt | Bitch | Hellhound/Lisa Wilbourn | Tattletale
Comments: 12
Kudos: 34





	Bark & Bite

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the Cauldron user Epos as part of the Valentine/February giveaway.
> 
> Prompt, quite simply, was Lisa/Rachel, so there you go!
> 
> Contains some suggestive themes and some ouchies, but nothing graphic of either.

Lisa could have happily gone her entire life without discovering how it felt to break her arm in three different places, but sometimes the world just conspired to share new and exciting facts with her.

She stumbled along the ruined street in a manner that could only be labelled upright insomuch as both feet were involved, good arm clinging desperately to her companion’s waist. A rough hand had a fistful of Lisa’s costume, dragging her as much as it was supporting her. Rachel’s mask was halfway torn away, showing the dour set of her jaw, the blood dripping from the ragged cuts in her cheek.

“Keep moving,” Rachel grunted, steadying Lisa as her faltering feet failed her, legs wobbling with exertion.

“Trying.” Among other things that she was attempting. Trying to block out the pain. Trying not think about how utterly fucked they were. Trying to assemble some semblance of a plan to get out of this. 

No such luck; something else Lisa hadn’t known was that the agony of broken bones was a very effective muzzle on her power. It was much more focused on the numerous ways in which the injury could be permanently debilitating or potentially lethal.

So, if ever in future she really needed to store up her power, she had only to jump out of a second story window. Yay.

Her foot caught on some rubble and her legs gave way, pitching her forwards, asphalt rushing up to meet her. Before she could faceplant, Rachel’s grip arrested her fall, leaving her hanging a foot above the ground before she was hauled back upright.

“Walk or I fucking leave you,” Rachel snarled. Her visible eye was wide and staring, and the rapid pants of her breath were far from exertion alone.

That near-hyperventilation was what cut through pain and frustration to give pause to Lisa’s immediate snappish response. Rachel was being a bitch, but she’d also dragged Lisa’s sorry ass for several blocks. She’d seen her hurled from Bentley’s back and leaped from her own dog to charge to the rescue. Without Rachel, Lisa would have died half a dozen times over; she could put up with some shit.

Still, from the look in her eye and the way she was acting, Lisa doubted she had anything else in mind than to flee until they got caught or collapsed, and neither of those were going to work out for them. Time for a course correction.

“Okay. Okay,” said Lisa, steadying herself and resuming her facsimile of walking. “We need to find someplace to lay low. Hide.”

“No. If we stay on the move we can get clear.” Rachel didn’t even look at her, constantly glancing this way and that, alert, wary, fearful.

“To  _ where _ , Bitch? We’re nowhere close to any of our territories and if this turns into a race, we lose. Only reason we got any distance is that the Teeth and Protectorate got in each other’s way.”

“We have a head start.”

“They’ve got speedsters and fliers.”

Rachel stopped abruptly enough that Lisa stumbled and overbalanced. Automatically, Rachel steadied her, and then snarled in wordless frustration.

“Fine,” she bit off, after a brief pause. “Have it your way. Like fucking always.”

That stung. Lisa wasn’t trying to one-up Rachel, she was trying to save their asses. She grappled with the words to get that across, and then gave up. Now wasn’t the right time, and for some unspecified reason, she was having a hard time concentrating. She started to straighten up in an attempt to look Rachel in the eye, but Rachel suddenly started off again, hauling Lisa in her wake. Tears sprang into Lisa’s eyes, breath hissing between her teeth.

Before she could demand what the hell she was doing, Rachel spoke. “I know a place. It’s near.”

Lisa could only manage a nod, though she felt a modicum of satisfaction and appreciation that Rachel had actually listened. Teamwork made the dream work, though not her legs, unfortunately. She desperately needed to stop and take stock, not even necessarily with her power. The pain and fatigue were mingling together, stealing her breath away, pulping her thoughts into agonised mush. Stop, think, plan.

Rachel suddenly yanked her to the side. Lisa started to yelp in pain, but was stifled by a hand clapped across her mouth. She didn’t even manage to regain her feet before Rachel seized her around the waist, scooped her up, and then  _ dove  _ off the street, thudding down behind an abandoned, mouldering couch on the sidewalk. Lisa choked on her own scream, tears springing to her eyes. Rachel clamped down even harder, squeezing Lisa against her and rolling them both as close to the couch as she could.

“Shut the fuck up,” she hissed.

Face pushed up against the musty furniture, Lisa bit her lip so hard she tasted blood and tried to hold in the whimpers.

Pounding footfalls echoed from further up the street, impact after impact thumping with enough force to shake the ground. Regular, four-legged. Fucking Animos again. He’d been the spearhead of the Teeth’s ambush on the Undersiders’ convoy, slamming into the vehicle Aisha and Alec insisted on dubbing the LOOTWAGON, immediately rendering it the Onitsroofandonfirewagon. He’d then spent the full duration of his power absolutely wrecking their shit, disabling Grue’s darkness every time he tried to produce it, rendering Lisa almost completely useless without hers, and near enough ramming Skitter through a wall.

And he was twenty metres away and closing. This day just got better and better, didn’t it?

Thud. Thud. Closer and closer.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Rachel’s heart was racing so hard that Lisa could feel it against her back. Lisa’s own beat thrummed in her ears.

Thud. Thud. Each step sent vibrations through the ground.

Thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump. Rachel panted against her neck, squeezing her mouth and jaw with smothering force. Lisa jabbed her in the stomach with an elbow and she loosened up, and then froze entirely.

A shadow had fallen across them both.

Both beats mingled together, roaring with such speed and power Lisa felt certain that they could be heard from a mile away, let alone right on top of them.

Hot air gusted above, thick and rotten.

Not air. Exhalations.

She didn’t move. She didn’t breathe.

The arm wrapped around her body clutched her in a desperate embrace. Tremors ran through them both, and Lisa couldn’t say which of them was trembling.

_ Huff. Huff. Huff. _

Concrete scraped under sharp claws and monstrous weight. Something cracked like a gunshot. 

The footfalls resumed. Moving onward.

Several long seconds passed.

Rachel moved her hand. Lisa breathed out.

“Fuck,” she said weakly. “Just...just  _ fuck _ . How are we alive.”

They lay there together, catching their collective breaths. Animos’ pounding steps faded, and then finally vanished from earshot. A couple of minutes went by. Adrenaline subsided inch by inch, allowing the pain of Lisa’s broken bone to seep back into her awareness. Rachel wasn’t covering her mouth or constricting her neck any longer, but her muscular arm remained, tucking Lisa against her chest. Warm. More comfort than Lisa expected to draw from physical closeness. Though...

“Can you let me up? We need to get off the street.”

Rachel’s grip retracted so suddenly Lisa wondered if she’d even remembered she was still holding her. Just catching her breath still, most likely. Rachel stood, but then immediately crouched down to Lisa, carefully grabbing her good arm and slinging it over her shoulder. Lisa almost thanked her, but then she rose at speed, hauling her back upright and evincing a strangled cry.

“For fuck’s sake, Bitch!”

“Fuck off, Tattletale.” She started walking, not quite as fast as before, but still more dragging Lisa than she was helping her along. “It’s a block and a half. Keep up.”

Muttering darkly under her breath, Lisa forced her feet to cooperate, settling into a gait that was, if not comfortable, then functional. She wasn’t sure if Rachel would have been her first pick to get stuck in a situation like this with, not a dogless Rachel anyway. She was already tightly wound enough without the added stress of not knowing where her animals were, last seen bundling the other Undersiders away. That was probably the source of much of the aggression. Didn’t mean she should take it out on Lisa, though for all her threats, she hadn’t abandoned her.

Lisa wanted to hope that ditching a teammate wasn’t in Rachel’s nature, but she was unpredictable. They crossed the street together, then turned a corner. Lisa stumbled a couple more times, Rachel steadied her each. The arm was really starting to fuck her up now, redness blurring the edges of her vision. Fucking hell this sucked.

She tried to keep her eyes from her arm and its whole new set of angles, attempting to concentrate on blocking out the pain. Might as well as have been trying to dig her way through a wall with a spoon. This wasn’t going to be ignored.

Rachel halted. “Here.”

Managing to raise her head, Lisa saw what had once been a drug store, the shopfront caved in, glass smashed and scattered across the sidewalk. Another victim of Leviathan’s path of destruction. She’d take it. Rachel guided them up to the gaping window and simply stepped through, pausing to help Lisa along. She bit her cheek to suppress a cry. The interior was utterly trashed, shelves tipped over and shattered, the stock scattered across the floor, crushed, sodden, rotten.

“You always pick the best spot for our dates.”

Rachel gave her the finger. “There’s a basement. It’s less shit.”

“After you.”

Rachel said something Lisa couldn’t make out but was probably rude, then dragged them both over to what had probably once been the store counter, pointing at the edge of a hatch, just visible beneath a toppled magazine rack. Concealed, Lisa dug it.

Letting go of Lisa momentarily, sparing a too-short instant to ensure Lisa could catch herself on the counter, Rachel hauled open the hatch. Darkness yawned below. “Get in.”

They descended.

*

A luxury hotel the basement was not, but still better than Lisa had expected. The water damage was fairly minimal, mostly causing the single light bulb to flicker wildly every ten minutes or so, and though there was exactly one place to sit, the torn up sofa was—well, Lisa had slept on worse, put it that way. A single door led through to a tiny bathroom, and the main area was split into a kitchenette and living area. The latter was dominated by a tangle of blankets and a couple of large dog beds. No prizes guessing who’d spent time down here.

They were on the couch together, and though they hadn’t originally been sitting side-by-side, Lisa had slowly slumped her way downward until her head rested against Rachel’s shoulder. In her defence, she was in shitloads of pain and Rachel didn’t seem to mind. Her curses were instead directed at Lisa’s phone, which she was attempting to use to raise the other Undersiders. 

“Stupid thing,” she grumbled as another text bounced. “Your phone is dumb.”

“Signal’s bad in this part of town,” said Lisa. Her eyelids were starting to droop. She bit her lip to force them open. This would be a bad time to fall asleep. “Most everything got ripped up.”

Rachel made a noise of frustration, then tossed the phone into the blanket pile.

“Hey!”

“One went through. I think. I don’t know. We’ll see.”

Lisa’s turn to wordlessly express irritation, but she couldn’t help but feel a little relieved. Help would be on the way sooner or later. Assuming that the others had all made it out.

They had. They had made it out. The group had all kinds of escape strategies and Lisa had seen each and every one of her teammates alive before she’d been dragged back into the fray. They’d stayed one step ahead of the Protectorate every time before now, and this would be no different. As for the Teeth, Animos prowling around didn’t necessarily mean anything, could have just been trying to chase down a consolation prize.

She hoped. She hoped like hell.

Suddenly, Lisa felt a hand slowly run its way through her hair. She stilled. Uh.

Rachel’s hand touched her head again, then ran down to her neck. Um.

She repeated the motion a few more times. Lisa’s scalp began to tingle, not unpleasantly.

A few minutes drifted by. Rachel didn’t pause once, except to flip her hand over and use the back of it instead. Lisa shifted her weight slightly, leaning into her.

Lisa… really had to ask.

“Rachel?”

“Mm?”

“Why are you stroking me?”

The motion paused for a second, and then resumed. “Scared dogs like it.”

Lisa decided to leave the subject alone. It did feel kind of nice, and if she pushed her, Rachel might stop. Right now, the slender comfort of the touch on her head was the sole distraction from the crushing pain in her arm. 

And then it did stop, as if her comment had brought home to Rachel what she was doing. She roughly extricated herself from Lisa, causing her to fall back flat on the sofa, jarring her arm.

“Ow! Be careful!”

“I’m gonna look for painkillers,” said Rachel, as if that explained everything.

“‘Look for’?” Lisa asked incredulously. “Isn’t this your hideout?”

“I just sleep here,” Rachel replied, starting to search through the drawers on the various counters in the kitchen. 

“And you never thought to look around even once?” Lisa knew she was being kind of venomous, but that had  _ hurt _ , and Rachel had stopped, and she already kind of missed the surprisingly gentle touch—but mostly it had hurt!

“Quit whining,” Rachel growled. “The noise will bring them down on us.”

Lisa grasped for some seconds for a witty retort. Banter was hard right now. “If they hear us through that hatch, the ground, and the wall, they deserve to catch us.” She grinned.

“Stop baring your fucking teeth at me,” Rachel snarled. “I know you’re hurt. I’m  _ helping _ .”

Half a word was out of Lisa’s mouth before she stopped to think, really think about what Rachel had just said. She’d been smiling, not baring her—wait. Rachel was very literal and didn’t mince words. She wasn’t snapping at Lisa for smirking, or telling her to get the smug look off of her face. She was specifically telling her to not show teeth.

Which… was a sign of aggression and fear in dogs, wasn’t it?

Well shit. A lot of things suddenly made a lot more sense.

“I didn’t mean it in that way,” said Lisa carefully.

“Whatever.” Rachel resumed rooting through the kitchen, yanking open drawers and cupboards then rummaging through the contents. She produced a small cardboard container, scrutinised it, then tossed it Lisa’s way. “I found pills.”

Not even attempting a catch, Lisa waited for the box to hit the floor and then slowly, painstakingly leaned down to collect it. She pulled a wry face. “These are for heartburn.”

“I didn’t fucking know that,” snapped Rachel. 

“I’m just saying.”

“Whatever,” said Rachel, harder this time.

She turned away. Lisa winced. Why did every conversation have to be a damn minefield? She’d aimed that as a light tease and belly flopped onto criticism instead.

“You really piss me off.” Rachel didn’t look back at her, addressing the wall.

Lisa frowned. “Uhh… okay?”

“You’re smart, but you’re not as smart as you think.”

Starting to smirk, Lisa hesitated, attempting to keep track of what her lips were doing. Shit, she showed teeth a  _ lot _ , huh? “Well now you’re just being ru—”

“Shut up.”

Lisa’s mouth closed with a click.

Rachel snatched at her own hair, grabbing a fistful as she turned. A deep scowl was etched across her face. “You’re so fucking annoying. You do it on purpose.”

She paused for long enough Lisa felt confident she wouldn’t get her head bitten off. “I annoy you on purpose?”

“Yes!” Rachel cast about, then, finding nothing, snarled, thumping a fist into her own leg. “You fucking get off on it!” 

Lisa blinked. “I. Um. What?”

“You heard me!” Rachel barked.

_ Completely serious. Genuinely believes what she’s saying. Thinks it’s a game to me. Hates games. Hates this game in particular. Hates the bullshit. Thinks I’m bullshitting my feelings for her. Wants me to be direct so we can just fuck already— _

Whoooooa now. Power. Power!? Was it defective somehow? Had Animos’ scream fucked it up? No way was that right. No fucking way. Not because her mind was lingering on Rachel’s close, protective embrace. Not because she was thinking about how it’d felt to have those fingers running through her hair.

“Even if I was trying to annoy you, it wouldn’t be because of—because of that!” Lisa didn’t sound as firm as she would have liked.

“Prove it.” Rachel stepped in close.

“Fucking how!?”

Rachel leaned in until her face was just a couple of inches from Lisa’s, her presence overpowering. Intox— _ absolutely not you stop that right now _ . “Say no.”

“I…” she trailed off. Her face was hot. Fuck. She was blushing.

“Say no,” Rachel growled. Shivers shot down Lisa’s spine. “If you don’t want it, tell me to fuck off.”

Her brain was stuttering, sparking. Her power tried to fill in the holes, grasp for reasons why she shouldn’t, why she couldn’t, why she didn’t, but her resistance was ripping itself to shreds under the intensity of Rachel’s gaze.

Oh screw it. She deserved one nice thing today. She grabbed the back of Rachel’s head and pulled her into a kiss. Rachel leaned into it, bearing her weight down on Lisa, and then suddenly broke away. Her expression was strange; only Rachel could look pleased and pissed at the same time.

“Have to take the lead every fucking time, don’t you?”

“I have a broken arm,” said Lisa, surprised to find playfulness in her own tone. The tension of the situation had drained away. The heat ran through her cheeks to the tips of her ears. “You should let me.”

Rachel seemed to consider, then a positively predatory look arrived on her face as she advanced on Lisa once more, gathering her up in her arms. She lowered Lisa gently to the ground and straddled her hips. One hand thumped flat to the floor alongside Lisa’s head, the other, the opposite. She kissed Lisa fiercely, her lips somehow yet hotter than Lisa’s blush. She pulled up, leaving Lisa breathless as her smouldering eyes lit her aflame. “Nah.”

Busted bones and dilapidated surroundings made a poor scene for lovemaking, but they managed.

*

Light hit Lisa’s eyes and she grimaced, squinting them open. The pain was back in her arm again, worse than before, but her uninjured one was coiled around Rachel’s waist, their bodies close beneath the blankets.

“Doctor’s in the house!” whooped a voice from above, followed by the thump of feet landing heavily on the floor.

Panic suddenly shot through Lisa, cutting through the sleepy haze. That voice—

“Well, well, well, what have we here?” Aisha bent over, a hand on each thigh. “I thought you guys were in trouble, turns out you were getting laid!”

“I’m hurt,” Lisa protested weakly. Rachel stirred and sat up, regarding Lisa with a fond look that was almost enough to calm her yammering heart.

“With a broken arm? Lisa, you  _ dog _ .” Aisha’s eyes lit up and she smirked evilly. “Which I guess is why she likes you—”

Lisa hit her in the head with the box of heartburn meds.


End file.
